The Walk - Starkville - It's Being Built on Wingo Way and It's Huge...

[BoomBoom]

Yup. That's mostly what student debt is now. Even the money actually being paid to the school is largely paying for amenities and extra administration, not increases in the cost of actually educating people.

In my day the "cost of living", which dictated the max loan amount, didn't have too much in it beyond tuition. Would have covered an apartment, but not an expensive lux one. Has that formula been changed?

I would think this will mainly be kids with daddy money.

[Johnson85]

In my day the "cost of living", which dictated the max loan amount, didn't have too much in it beyond tuition. Would have covered an apartment, but not an expensive lux one. Has that formula been changed?

I would think this will mainly be kids with daddy money.

I don't think that has changed. But when I was in school, it seemed like a lot of kids from middle class families took out loans and got money from their families each month. I think a lot of parents just kept spending what they were spending when the kids were in high school (food, entertainment, maybe a car and car insurance) and the student covered tuition and rent out of loans and/or scholarship. I was also in the thick of the "student loan debt is good debt" messaging. People may be smarter now.

[Maroonthirteen]

I just want to point out the average cost of a dorm, is $5,500-8,600 a school year. Most are paying closer to $8600 because ain't nobody wanting to live in Hull.

My kid is moving to a near campus apartment for the next year. She has a much bigger space, private room, w/d handy, etc and will pay the same per month as the dorm when all is said and done. It's an easy decision.

[Maroonthirteen]

The Walk is $700-$780 per month for a 2br apartment.

Terrible Herbert and Hull are $5500 for 9 months. $600 per month.
The new construction dorms are approximately $8600 for 9 months. $955 per month

[BrunswickDawg]

I just want to point out the average cost of a dorm, is $5,500-8,600 a school year. Most are paying closer to $8600 because ain't nobody wanting to live in Hull.

My kid is moving to a near campus apartment for the next year. She has a much bigger space, private room, w/d handy, etc and will pay the same per month as the dorm when all is said and done. It's an easy decision.

Add in that you HAVE to have a meal plan living in a dorm - so add another $1800 a semester, plus adding money for laundry (when most apts. have w/d now). I ran the numbers after my daughters freshman year and realized quickly that at worst it was a wash living off campus.

[Johnson85]

The Walk is $700-$780 per month for a 2br apartment.

Terrible Herbert and Hull are $5500 for 9 months. $600 per month.
The new construction dorms are approximately $8600 for 9 months. $955 per month

That's not exactly apples to apples though. If you aren't wanting to spend the entire calendar year in Starkville, the dorms are saving you a few months of rent. And then there are utilities, which a lot of the college apartments when I was there were pretty shitty construction as far as energy efficiency. Do the new dorms have bathrooms that are cleaned by the school? Or are they en suite now and cleaning the responsibility of the students? Our dorm bathrooms were actually kept pretty clean. I saw some pretty nasty apartment bathrooms and the ones that weren't nasty, they obviously spent at least a little bit of time cleaning. But those are still pretty eye popping numbers though. Just not quite as eye popping as they look at first glance.

Are you just required to live on campus for one year still? I liked living on campus and think I'd want my kids to do that for a year, but that's pretty damn pricey. Do the students that join fraternities and sororities get exempted from the meal plan requirement?

[SheltonChoked]

That's not exactly apples to apples though. If you aren't wanting to spend the entire calendar year in Starkville, the dorms are saving you a few months of rent. And then there are utilities, which a lot of the college apartments when I was there were pretty shitty construction as far as energy efficiency. Do the new dorms have bathrooms that are cleaned by the school? Or are they en suite now and cleaning the responsibility of the students? Our dorm bathrooms were actually kept pretty clean. I saw some pretty nasty apartment bathrooms and the ones that weren't nasty, they obviously spent at least a little bit of time cleaning. But those are still pretty eye popping numbers though. Just not quite as eye popping as they look at first glance.

Are you just required to live on campus for one year still? I liked living on campus and think I'd want my kids to do that for a year, but that's pretty damn pricey. Do the students that join fraternities and sororities get exempted from the meal plan requirement?

It all depends on how nice and where the apartment is. If your kid wants granite countertops, a fitness center, a resort pool, and/or to live in the cotton district, then the dorms may be a better deal.

If they can live in any other part of starkville, you can get a 2 bedroom to yourself, for the price of a new dorm room. Utilities add about $160 a month (power, water, internet). $1800 a semester ($450 a month) saved on a meal plan will offset utilities, food and most of the beer. Add a roommate and the numbers are even better.

The new dorm rooms are "hotel style" where the bathrooms are cleaned by the kids. That's a wash.

[SheltonChoked]

Yup. That's mostly what student debt is now. Even the money actually being paid to the school is largely paying for amenities and extra administration, not increases in the cost of actually educating people.

I think tuition being $20,000 a year has something to do with it.

We used to be able to get a summer job, make $1,000-1,500 a month, and have the $3,000 for tution. Now kids get $2,000-3,000 a month in a summer job, and borrow all the tuition money...

[confucius say]

$700 a month for a new 2 bedroom apartment is dirt cheap. Holy cow. That's $350 a person with a roommate. That is incredibly cheap. Like west Jackson cheap.

[Tater]

Yup. That's mostly what student debt is now. Even the money actually being paid to the school is largely paying for amenities and extra administration, not increases in the cost of actually educating people.

The flat tuition fee for State went from ~$3200 / semester in 2013 to ~$4400 / semester in 2019.

[Tater]

In my day the "cost of living", which dictated the max loan amount, didn't have too much in it beyond tuition. Would have covered an apartment, but not an expensive lux one. Has that formula been changed?

I would think this will mainly be kids with daddy money.

COL Scholarship Cap is about 150% of tuition at State.

[RocketDawg]

https://thewalkstarkville.com/

Here's the link. Evidently a super-nice student housing place.

Could be gameday as well.

Really nice.

Looks a little nicer than Critz where I lived my first year, with 2 roommates ....

[RocketDawg]

I don't think that has changed. But when I was in school, it seemed like a lot of kids from middle class families took out loans and got money from their families each month. I think a lot of parents just kept spending what they were spending when the kids were in high school (food, entertainment, maybe a car and car insurance) and the student covered tuition and rent out of loans and/or scholarship. I was also in the thick of the "student loan debt is good debt" messaging. People may be smarter now.

When I was in school, just about all students stayed in a dorm. It didn't kill us and was cheap.

[Maroonthirteen]

Looks a little nicer than Critz where I lived my first year, with 2 roommates ....

Critz is still there and they charge $3,295 a semester per student. So, $6,590 per semester per dorm. That's got to be near 80-100% profit for MSU. I'm sure the building has been paid off for decades.

[Todd4State]

I just want to point out the average cost of a dorm, is $5,500-8,600 a school year. Most are paying closer to $8600 because ain't nobody wanting to live in Hull.

My kid is moving to a near campus apartment for the next year. She has a much bigger space, private room, w/d handy, etc and will pay the same per month as the dorm when all is said and done. It's an easy decision.

That was the case when I was at MSU as well. It's just now the apartments and dorms are a lot nicer then when I was in school. And I know y'all have seen those college girls on Facebook that have their dorm all decorated like they're going to show it on HGTV. My wall had a MSU baseball legends poster on it and it kind of had a prison cell vibe going on. Just a completely different era.

[Todd4State]

Bad location. That would kill closer to the district but unfortunately students do not want to live out that way. Campus Trails found that out, Aspen found that out, and so on and so on.

Isn't one of the big perks of living in the Cotton District the fact that you can live off campus but at the same time still walk to class unless you lived way down Main St.? I know that now it's the place to be because of all of the bars and restaurants but back in the day the accessibility plus the fact that the rent was really cheap was what kind of made it an attractive area for students.

This place seems pretty walkable to get to class to me.

[Todd4State]

I think tuition being $20,000 a year has something to do with it.

We used to be able to get a summer job, make $1,000-1,500 a month, and have the $3,000 for tution. Now kids get $2,000-3,000 a month in a summer job, and borrow all the tuition money...

Ahhhhh yes. I had it pretty good because I was on scholarship(s). So all of my summer money was basically for fun.

[Todd4State]

I don't think that has changed. But when I was in school, it seemed like a lot of kids from middle class families took out loans and got money from their families each month. I think a lot of parents just kept spending what they were spending when the kids were in high school (food, entertainment, maybe a car and car insurance) and the student covered tuition and rent out of loans and/or scholarship. I was also in the thick of the "student loan debt is good debt" messaging. People may be smarter now.

I think you're right. I did get some living money from my parents every month- but it was basically for food and necessities like toothpaste.

And like I said I think there is an "image" thing for some people. A place with granite counter tops that looks like a resort may be appealing to some of those people.

Another perk is the place can possibly be used as a place to spend the night after football and baseball games. Can't really sneak your parents in the dorm.

[Cooterpoot]

Bad location. That would kill closer to the district but unfortunately students do not want to live out that way. Campus Trails found that out, Aspen found that out, and so on and so on.

Those locations should pick up, if the pricing is good. The only parking on campus is on the edges each way now. With the school eliminating driving on campus, all those places should pick up. Cotton District is terrible because of no parking and when things are hopping, it's hard to get in and out. The District is in the bad location. Impossible to grow it much.

[Johnson85]

The flat tuition fee for State went from ~$3200 / semester in 2013 to ~$4400 / semester in 2019.

But those fees didn'tn get more expensive because it's that much more expensive to actually educate people. It got that expensive because they are pouring money into amenities and administration. The amenities are just a function of competing for "customers" spending money that either isn't theirs or doesn't feel like its theirs (until they have to pay it back). The administration is partly from a sick and unaccountable culture and partly driven by all the crazy federal compliance stuff.